Wrong Place: A gripping serial killer crime thriller. (8 page)

CHAPTER SEVEN

Sally was finishing up sifting through the monotonous paperwork thrust upon DIs nowadays—after the relaxing weekend, the chore seemed so much better to deal with—when Jack appeared in her doorway.

“We’ve got another one.” He looked downbeat, and an ominous feeling pushed away all the relaxation that had seeped into her body over the past few days.

“Crap, really? Where?”

“Different location entirely. In a disused warehouse not far from Acle.”

“If it’s disused, how did someone find the body?”

He shrugged. “Lucky break, I guess.”

“Do we know how long it’s been there? What kind of condition is the body in, decomposing or what?”

“I don’t know, boss. All I know is that a body has been reported and that the pathologist is on his way over there now, as we should be.”

“All right, Jack. Keep your toupee in place. What’s biting you this morning?”

He mumbled something as he turned away from her. Sally shuffled the rest of the paperwork together and set it aside then stood up and slipped on her jacket. The incident room was buzzing when she joined the rest of the team. “Okay, guys, you keep digging into the other two murders while Jack and I go visit the crime scene. Let’s hope the DNA is the same and we’re not dealing with either another killer or a copycat on our patch. Joanna, have you chased up the second DNA results this morning yet?”

“Not yet, boss. I’ll get on it straight away. I know it’s Monday morning, but it’s been almost a week now. I’ll remind them of the promise they made.”

“You do that. How do they expect us to catch a killer if they can’t furnish us with the DNA results? Okay, climbing off my soapbox for now. Are you ready, Jack?”

“Yep.” He walked out of the incident room without waiting for Sally.

Sally stopped by Joanna’s desk. “What’s eating him this morning? Do you know?”

“Nope. He’s barely said two words since he arrived, and that was to bite Jordan’s head off about something minor.”

“That’s not like him. Trouble at home, maybe?”

Joanna shrugged. “Probably. I’m sure he’ll tell us when he feels ready to open up.”

“Yeah, I suppose. Looks like I’m in for a fun-filled morning.”

Joanna nodded and reached for the phone. “You and me both!”

Jack was leaning against Sally’s car when she walked out of the station, his face turned upwards as if seeking out the springtime sunrays.

“We haven’t got time for you to top up your tan, Jack. Leave that until your holiday, eh?”

“What bloody holiday? We’ve had to cancel it.” He kicked out at the gravel.

“Shit! Why? No wait; fill me in on the way.”

They both climbed in the car, and Sally drove off, heading for the crime scene. The area had become more familiar to her every time they drove out that way. “So?”

“To be honest with you, I’m just too damned angry right now to discuss it, boss.”

“That bad! Surely nothing can be so bad that it forces you into cancelling your summer holiday, mate. Is Donna all right? You guys haven’t been arguing, have you?”

Jack remained silent, and Sally noticed his hands wringing together in his lap. She’d never seen her partner look so wound up. Something major was afoot, but she thought he would fill her in when the time was right. Nothing ever got Jack down. Years in the forces meant he had a chilled-out nature that was ideal for his role as a DS. So to see him in such turmoil concerned Sally greatly. “Okay, I’m taking the hint and butting out. I’ll just say one thing, Jack. I’m here if you need to chat. You know I can keep a confidence, right?”

“I know, boss. When the time is right, I’ll let you in on the secret. I just need to sort things out up here first.” He jabbed a finger at his temple.

“I understand. I hope you get things sorted soon.”

He turned to look out the window at the passing countryside. “I doubt that.”

Sally cringed, feeling helpless that she couldn’t help her partner through his difficult time. However, on a purely selfish note, she hoped his problems didn’t come with any lingering lapses in concentration where his work ability was concerned.

They arrived at the crime scene to find Simon and his team getting suited and booted beside his vehicle.

“Just got here?” Sally called out.

“Been here a few minutes, Inspector. If you have intentions of coming inside to view the body, you’ll need to get togged up first. Tony, sort out another couple of sets for the detectives, will you?”

“What do we know about the victim? Anything yet?” Sally slipped one leg into the paper suit Tony provided for her.

“Not a lot right now. Similar MO in that she had traces of semen found on her leg, and she was naked.”

“Damn, even more essential to chase up that DNA sample from the lab.”

Simon frowned. “Have you still not got that? Want me to make a phone call later for you?”

Sally let out a long breath. “If you could, that would be marvellous.”

With everyone dressed in white suits, gloves, and blue paper slippers, the team entered the building. Doubtful about falling debris from the crumbling walls and what was left of the floor above, Sally paused at the entrance. “Shouldn’t we wear hard hats instead of flimsy paper?”

“I took a quick look and came to the conclusion that the roof and floor above appeared to be sound enough, for now at least.”

“I’ll take your word on that,” she said, her tone full of sarcasm.

“There’s our victim.” Simon pointed off to the side, just feet ahead of them.

“Do you think she was murdered elsewhere and then dumped here?” Sally asked.

“Maybe.” Simon replied with a shrug.

The group approached the corpse.

Sally felt the need to cover the girl’s body, as she always did when she stumbled across a naked female victim. “Shit! Another young girl. Can you get us an ID to start us off?”

Simon nodded and removed the woman’s small handbag from the pile of clothes. He flipped open the front flap and extracted her purse. “Let’s see. Alexina Graham. A miss, according to her bank card.”

Sally motioned for Jack, who still seemed a little distracted, to note down the woman’s details. He took out his notebook and jotted down the information from the ID.

“I have to say, he’s a very obliging murderer,” Sally observed.

Simon frowned at her. “That’s a very crass thing to say, Inspector.”

“I didn’t mean it to be. It’s just an observation. How many murderers have you come across who leave a DNA sample at the crime scene and their victim’s IDs lying around?”

“Good point. It’s as though he’s crying out to be caught.”

“Precisely. Which is why it’s imperative we get that DNA result pronto. Sorry to keep harping on about it, but it’s a fact. That’s three young women who have been murdered now. If we’d had the result back earlier, maybe—just maybe—we could have prevented this one,” Sally said, pointing at the victim.

Her harsh words seemed to strike a chord, because Simon sighed and nodded. “I’m not disagreeing with you, Inspector. Perhaps we should make a public appeal to all the criminals out there to take a week off so our forensic departments can catch up. My team does the best it can, really.”

“No need to be sarcastic, Simon.”

“Believe me, if I hit you with sarcasm, you’d definitely know about it. The damn budget has got us all down, Inspector. There’s no point ‘harping on about it,’ as you said. To keep working is the best we can do. Now, shall we get on with our work?”

Sally stepped closer to the body. “If you wouldn’t mind.”

“Well, the first and most obvious thing I’ve noticed is that the victim was strangled, and again, we have traces of semen on her thighs, just like the other victims. That means we can categorically say that we now have a serial killer on our hands.”

Sally sighed heavily. “I kind of suspected that after the first two murders. Why the break?”

“Sorry? I’m not with you, Inspector.”

“Almost six days between the second murder and this one, and yet the first two happened within twenty-four hours of each other. So why the break?”

“Maybe this one was killed around the same time, too,” Jack offered. “We’re off the beaten track here, so that’s possible.”

“Good point.” She turned to the pathologist. “Simon?”

“Well, I can assure you this victim was killed within the last twenty-four, more likely twelve hours, judging by the rigor that’s set in.”

“Ah, okay. I’ll keep quiet then,” Jack replied in a huff.

Sally glared at him, not that he bothered to look her way to see how annoyed she was at his stupid remark. Whether he had problems at home or not, his attitude wasn’t welcome during his shift, and especially not at a crime scene where everyone’s observations mattered.

“It was a reasonable remark, Sergeant,” Simon said. “Looking from here, I don’t think I’m going to be able to add anything of significance, Inspector. The all-important evidence will again be the semen and the relative DNA.”

“I get it. You’re telling us to take a hike and get on with trying to find the killer, right?”

“Indeed. Unless you want to hang around and watch us carry out the mundane tasks. To me, this appears to be an open-and-shut case until I can carry out a full examination. I can give you a call after that, unless you want to attend the PM?”

“I don’t think that will be necessary. All right, we’ll leave you to it and get started on tracking down what we can find out about the victim. My guess is she’ll turn out to be another barmaid. I’ll ring you later this afternoon.”

Sally marched out of the warehouse with Jack close on her heels. Once they were inside the vehicle, she paused and turned to him before she started the engine. “Either you tell me what’s bugging you, or I’m going to send you home. Now spill.”

Jack’s face clouded over. He ran an agitated hand through his greying hair and stared straight ahead of him.

Sally waited several more minutes then gently prompted, “Come on, Jack. You can tell me, mate.”

He exhaled a few more times and finally said, “I’m going to be a grandfather.”

Sally sat with her mouth hanging open, just staring at him.

“Yeah, it effing shocked the hell out of me, too.”

“But… Teresa is only sixteen, isn’t she? That is who we’re talking about here, isn’t it?”

“Christ, I bloody well hope so—Diane’s only eight, Sally. Do you think I’d be still walking around free if we were talking about Diane?”

“Nope, I guess you’d have murdered the guy responsible by now. Jeez… I’m not sure what to say, Jack. No wonder you’re ticked off.”

“Ticked off? That’s the bloody understatement of the millennium. It was bound to happen. That sounded bad, didn’t it? I didn’t mean she puts it about or anything like that. She’s been dating this older lad for a few months now.”

“Older lad? How much older?”

“Only two years, but he’s had dozens of girlfriends even at that young age.”

“Has he managed to get anyone else up the duff? Sorry,
pregnant?
”

“Not that I know of. Donna is bloody beside herself over this. Just when we thought Teresa was getting her life mapped out, this happens. She only told us last week that she wanted to be a vet. That’s seven years studying, I believe. Now this. Well, Donna and I told her there’s no way we’re going to give up our careers to bring up her kid.”

“I hope you said it more tactfully than that, Jack.”

He shook his head. “No, it all tumbled out in anger. Now she won’t talk to me; keeps blanking me when I’m in the same room. Why the heck do we have children, eh?”

“I really can’t answer that. I’ve never had the desire or inclination to have a child. You knew from the word
go
that your life would be full of moments of joy and a lot of trauma, didn’t you?”

“Maybe this kind of crap only comes from hatching female eggs.”

Sally laughed at his analogy. “Good to see there’s still a teeny-weenie bit of sense of humour buried in there somewhere.”

“It wasn’t a joke, boss. Unless my biology teacher lied to me at school, there are definitely eggs involved in the process.”

He had her there. “Okay, I see what you’re getting at. So, Donna’s as narked about this as you are then?”

“Too right, she is. She’s done nothing but sob her heart out since Teresa told us. She’s a total wreck. I’ve told her if she isn’t better by Wednesday, she needs to go and see the doctor.”

“Really? What good will that do?”

“That’s what she said. We can’t send the child back from where it came, can we?”

“Hey, if you want my advice, mate, you’d be wise to start thinking of the baby as a human being. It’s not the child’s fault that its parents didn’t practice safe sex. I take it she’s going to keep it?”

“She wants to, yes. You’re right, though—when the time comes, I’m sure I’ll be the proudest grandfather around. It’s just too much of a bloody shock to take it in at this moment.” He shuddered. “A granddad at forty, can you Adam and Eve it?”

“That is hard to believe. I’m truly sorry. Hopefully, now you’ve vented, things will seem a lot better. It’s never good to keep things bubbling out of control inside. I have an aunt who breaks out in psoriasis whenever she goes through a bout of stress. Plus there are so many stories of people having heart attacks circulating the station at present. I’d hate to see your name added to that kind of list.”

“Gee, thanks. Well, if I wasn’t frigging depressed before, I bloody am now.”

She nudged him with her elbow. “You know what I’m getting at. It’s not worth getting stressed about something that is out of your control. By the sounds of it, Donna is doing enough of that on behalf of both of you anyway. Show her things aren’t as bad as they seem, and I’m sure you’ll both get used to the idea a whole lot quicker.”

“Ever the voice of reason, ain’t you?”

“I detect the scepticism in your voice and know exactly what you’re referring to. Let this be one of those situations where you do as I say and not as I do, eh? Anyway, you can’t poke me with that particular stick anymore, not since I divorced Darryl. So there.” She stuck her tongue out at him to lighten the tension in the car.

“Yeah, it took you bloody long enough to come to your senses on that score. I have a little under nine months to get used to this idea.”